Question of the Day

Should President Trump pardon Michael Flynn?

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President Barack Obama waves as he and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton get off Air Force One in Charlotte, NC, Tuesday, July 5, 2016, for a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Bob Leverone) more >

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Tuesday that American voters will be the ones to pass judgment on likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s secret email account, after the FBI let her off the hook.

“Folks — the system is rigged. The normal punishment, in this case, would include losing authority to handle classified information, and that too disqualifies Hillary Clinton from being President,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

“The final jury will be the American people, and they will issue the verdict on her corruption, incompetence, and bad judgment on November 8th,” he said.

The billionaire businessman released the lengthy statement in response to FBI Director James B. Comey’s announcement earlier in the day that the agency would recommend not to charge Mrs. Clinton for the email setup and for mishandling classified material.

Mr. Trump’s immediate reaction came in a post on Twitter: “FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem.”

In the longer statement, Mr. Trump said that the FBI director had laid out a detailed case of how Hillary Clinton compromised the safety of the American people by storing highly classified information on a private email server with no security, confirming that her email could have been hacked.

“Our adversaries almost certainly have a blackmail file on Hillary Clinton, and this fact alone disqualifies her from service,” Mr. Trump said.

He also questioned the series of unusual events surrounding the announcement, which appeared to end the possibility that she would face criminal charges while running for president.

“But because of our rigged system that holds the American people to one standard and people like Hillary Clinton to another, it does not look like she will be facing the criminal charges that she deserves,” Mr. Trump said.

“Bill Clinton didn’t accidentally run into the Attorney General on the airport tarmac last week in Phoenix,” he said. “Hillary Clinton didn’t accidentally sneak into the FBI during one of the country’s biggest holiday weekends to testify on her illegal activities, something that wouldn’t be afforded to others under investigation (and on a Saturday of all days). It was no accident that charges were not recommended against Hillary the exact same day as President Obama campaigns with her for the first time.”